The present invention relates to a method of wrapping packets.
The present invention may be used to advantage on cigarette manufacturing machines, and in particular on packet cellophaning machines, to which the following description refers purely by way of example.
Packets of cigarettes are known to be wrapped in respective sheets of wrapping material using cellophaning machines by which the packets are fed continuously along a wrapping path, and which comprise a belt conveyor device and a wrapping conveyor device, in turn respectively comprising a straight conveyor belt and a wrapping wheel respectively defining a straight input portion and a circular output portion of the wrapping path.
Known cellophaning machines of the above type also comprise an intermediate transfer device interposed between the conveyor devices and in turn comprising a transfer wheel, which is tangent to the conveyor belt at a transfer station and to the wrapping wheel at a wrapping station, provides for receiving the packets from the conveyor belt and transferring them to the wrapping wheel, and defines a circular intermediate portion of the wrapping path.
The wrapping wheel normally comprises a number of folding seats, each of which comprises a peripheral opening facing radially outwards, and is supplied with a respective sheet of wrapping material over the peripheral opening, and with a respective packet which, as it is inserted inside the seat, engages and folds the sheet of wrapping material into a U.
The transfer wheel of cellophaning machines of the above type normally poses several drawbacks, both in terms of structure and operation: firstly, the cellophaning machine is structurally bulky and expensive to produce; and, secondly, each packet must be transferred at least twice before being wrapped, each of which transfer operations involves serious technical problems in the case of a continuously operating machine.